The Delivery Room: How is Inside of It || Mom Life

Ok so, yeah… I was a whale and no in a wealthy kind of way more of a OMG look at those cheeks and that nose on that picture!! ->
Let’s try and not get side tracked on how fat I was there, after all I was 38 weeks and 2 days pregnant in it and about to go have the first surgery I would ever have in my life.

Did you know a C-Section is a Major surgical procedure? They not only cut you open they move around your organs to make room for the baby to come out from a whole that didn’t even existed before. So, when you have a C-Section you don’t go to a normal Delivery Room, you go to the Operation Room (OR).

In my case it was a planned c-section since on my last check up, the doctor said I couldn’t go with a vaginal delivery, I had it done on the Red Cross Maternity Center of my city, on the morning of Sep 25th, 2018. Even tho in some cases the partner or another family member is allow inside the OR, the policy of the doctors in this center of the Red Cross is for not allowing anyone else beside the pregnant woman to avoid getting the person nervous or gross out, that is why I went in alone.

Getting Ready to get Inside

Since my c-section was schedule for first thing in the morning, I was told by my doctor I needed to get to the red cross on the nigh before, this to help ensure I didn’t eat anything 12 hours before the procedure and do the physical evaluations needed. You are asked not to have any thing to eat in this time frame to avoid having your guts fill with anything and outing in risk your life if a complication arises during the procedure.
That night a nurse told me I had to get up at 5am and be ready for them to prep me for the OR, as you can guess I couldn’t sleep well that night from the anticipation of finally having the little one on my arms.

Suggestions for Getting ready…

• Take a shower, I took one as soon as I woke up at 4am. And it helped me feel clean. When you are about to get completely naked and expose you better be clean!
• Shave from your belly button down to your privates, this is the best decision I made right with taking a shower, cause when you are getting cut right in that area below your belly button and your private area 10cm long, you have to know you will be put together back again and that wound would be cover with compresses and medical adhesive, that on the moment you need to pull from you, will make you feel a worse pain than getting waxed.

Getting prep by nurses

In my case all the nurse did was give me a gown tell me to put it on and lay down on bed so she could put a line on me, and pass me by medication on it, they put some anti-flatulating meds to avoid getting gassy after, I was told not to speak either after 2 hours of the operation to avoid the gasses (fun fact, even tho all of this I still got gassy, not too much but just enough for it to be painful).

The waiting room

I was taken form my room to the OR waiting Room, there is where the first photo on this post was taken, It was technically the recovery room where they had to put me cause my doctor was busy with an emergency c-section that arrive right before I got mine done.
This room was a preview into the cold that was expecting me inside the OR, I was already freezing. Even tho I was in that are for only about 10 minutes.

The OR

Ok so, it was time I would finally be inside the OR, and OMG the cold!!!if I was freezing before, when I got in here I knew I would become an ice statue, and to top all that, I was told I was to take the gown off, so I would just lay in that or bed completely naked… and you know naked + freezing temperatures are not the best thing to mix, then it came the waiting… I was starting to getting pissed, I was laying there naked waiting for my anesthesiologist to get ready.

The epidural

When you are having a c-section even tho is technically a major surgery, they don’t completely sedate you, I was made to put in a fetal position and hug my legs together to my chess so that the anesthesiologist could applied to me, the epidural is put with an scary needle on the back right in the middle of your spine, and believe when I said it doesn't actually feel pain is more of a discomfort.

Let the show begins

After the drugs are in place, you are secured to the gurney they put you on your back and stretch your arms wide open to your sides and like they are for lack of better example cruxifying to it they tie your arms so you don’t move them.

This position for me sucked big time, the baby made pressure on my lungs and stomach so I couldn’t breathe well and felt the need to vomit, it was not fun at all, when I complained to my doctor about it, she said to just out my head to a side so if I were to vomit it wouldn’t fall on myself and to wait a little bit once the baby is out you will feel better.

The Cutting
I don’t know how to describe the feeling, I was numb by the drugs but at the same time could sense what was happening to my body, I felt when the doctor started to cut me open, not in a painful way more like in a numb way, after they cut you open, they move around your organs to make room for the baby to come out, this meddling with my insides I didn’t actually felt in any way.

The Pulling and Pushing
Here is the thing that nobody tells you, they pull that cut wide open and then try to push the baby if is not in the way of where the opening is located, in my case one of the doctors assisting mine made even more pressure on my stomach to make the baby move to a better place where the other doctor could pull him out easily. They take the head out first and then the rest of the body.

Is Out!
Once the baby is out you feel how that weight leaves your body and in my case I felt instant relief from the wanting to vomit and could breathe better, as soon as he was taken out of me, the nurse took him right to my face so I could kiss him, in some cases you can ask for a gentle c-section where they let you hold the baby and try to breastfeed right there, since I didn’t know this was a possibility I didn’t ask for it (the thing I regret the most).

Closing
Since I took advantage of the situation I was put in, of having to have a c-section, I asked to get my tubs tie and cut in the same procedure, this would allow me to kill 2 birds with the same stone LMAO. So, after my baby was out (and me having to beg for what it felt an eternity, but this is a story for another post) my doctor started to cut my tubs, she explained that she actually ties them, cuts them and then she cauterizes them (burning them with a laser). After I got sterilized, she proceeded to closing me. I don’t know if the drugs were wearing out of me but I can swear I felt the laser she used to close my wound burning through my skin it was painful.

On to the recovery room

I was taken to the recovery room where a nurse help me put on a gown I had taken for after the procedure, by this time I was so tired I felt like I had run a marathon or something, the whole procedure took only 40minutes but it felt way longer, I was in the recovery room for maybe 5 to 10 minutes before I was move to my room. The nurse keep saying stuff but it all felt so foggy I dont remember much of what happened during those minutes.

That was my whole experience inside what for me was the delivery room… an OR.

If you are reading this and planning on having a c-section I hope it helps you a little bit to know what to expect.

If you already had a c-section, please do share your story on the Motherhood Community.